No, Twitter, Joe Arpaio didn't burn a dog and laugh (his men did)

The Republic's politics team talks Joe Arpaio's run for Senate, Gov. Doug Ducey's promises in the State of the State address and Rep. Don Shooter's apology for sexual harassment on Jan. 9, 2018. Johanna Huckeba/azcentral

That’s a joke — you should know that already. But early Thursday people started tweeting about how Joe Arpaio, former Maricopa County sheriff, pardoned for contempt of court, and now candidate for U.S. Senate, burned a dog to death and laughed about it.

No. He didn’t.

His men reportedly did, however.

In 2004.

If you search for “joe arpaio dog” on Twitter, you’ll turn up tweets that say things like, “Joe Arpaio burned a dog alive, and then laughed at the sobbing owner.”

A perhaps more accurate tweet said, “Saying Joe Arpaio burned a dog alive and laughed at the owner is inaccurate and I’m sick of the false accusations. He conditioned an entire squad of goons to do that and collectively laugh at the owner.”

Saying Joe Arpaio burned a dog alive and laughed at the owner is inaccurate and I'm sick of the false accusations. He conditioned an entire squad of goons to all do that and collectively laugh at the owner

That falls more in line with the reported story. New Times, an alternative weekly in Phoenix, reported in 2004 that Arpaio’s SWAT team stormed an Ahwatukee home, firing tear-gas canisters. The house caught on fire. According to the story, “In the ultimate display of cruelty, a SWAT team member drove a dog trying to flee the home back into the inferno, where it met an agonizing death. Deputies then reportedly laughed as the dog's owners came unglued as it perished in the blaze.”

Or who knows, maybe you think those are all positives that demand your vote.

Whatever the case, there is no evidence that Arpaio personally burned a dog, or laughed about it.

If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, it’s also becoming the price of using social media. A brush fire of controversy can ignite from a simple tweet, no matter its accuracy. It’s one of the dangers of the age, and it demands a certain amount of sophistication on the part of users and consumers.

Then again, maybe it doesn’t. There was a time that even being the boss of people who did something like burn a dog and laugh would disqualify you for office.

No more. Now bragging about grabbing women's genitals is dismissed as locker-room banter. If that doesn’t get in the way of your political aspirations, can anything?

Maybe not. But it doesn’t excuse sloppy reporting or spreading of rumors. Remember: Think before you tweet. And after you read Twitter.